


Player 2, Select Your Gender Option

by Sythe



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Genderbending, Teen Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-07
Updated: 2016-02-27
Packaged: 2018-04-19 13:24:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 19,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4748027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sythe/pseuds/Sythe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kushina wants a baby girl because reason, and what Kushina wants Kushina gets. For a scrawny, orphan brat with dreams too big, pink or blue really don’t matter, especially when little Naruto likes orange better anyway. Gaara of the Sand may be a fearsome shinobi at fifteen, but nobody ever said he was a pro at weathering life, puberty, and the politics of physical union between states.</p>
<p>The more things change, the more they stay the same. </p>
<p>Gaanaru. Naruto with Kushina’s chakra chain and barrier kekkei genkai</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Instead of a Sword, A Skirt is Born

Disclaimer: I don’t own Naruto

Reason: for Gaanaru fanday, July 28th. Also, for the lulz.

Beta: Michelle T.

 

Summary: Kushina wants a baby girl because reason, and what Kushina wants Kushina gets. For a scrawny, orphan brat with dreams too big, pink or blue really don’t matter, especially when little Naruto likes orange better anyway. Gaara of the Sand may be a fearsome shinobi at fifteen, but nobody ever said he was a pro at weathering life, puberty, and the politics of physical union between states.

 

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

 

Gaanaru. Naruto with Kushina’s chakra chain and barrier kekkei genkai. This used to be a mega one-shot (one of those 10-20k words ones) but then my overactive imagination betrayed me and now it’s a multi-chapter… a short multi-chapter, maybe two-shot or three-shot… or four-shot... that I hope to complete in 2-3 weeks.  

  
  


**Chapter 1: Instead of the sword, a skirt is born.**

* * *

 

1.

 

It started from some innocuous and absolutely insignificant thing, as most problems with Kushina tended to. Minato couldn’t even remember how it started except that they had been talking at dinner, him and his one and a half month newly confirmed pregnant wife.

 

She made marinated fried chicken with the Ohitashi. He brought home a couple bottles of rich Asahi lager for the occasion. Last time Kushina got to go a little tipsy before it’s a straight 8 months of full on sober time for her. The TV had Baby Inja and the seven Ninjas on. It was one of those so bad it was good shows so they had full guarantee this would be a night for two with plenty to enjoy.

 

There was a book involved. Jiraiya’s Tales of the Gutsy ninja. Now that he thought about it, he could remember enthusiastically gushing on about that one weirdly named ninja and wanting to use that name for his future child.

 

“My boy will be a hero!” Yeah, now that he thought about it he could remember saying something along that vein, and saying it very very enthusiastically… at the top of his voice, cherry-faced and high on liquid fermented rice.

 

“Or girl!” And yeah Kushina definitely replied something like that… with her face slightly pink and well on her third mug. “It’s not just boys who get to be heroes you know. And not all girls are princesses waiting to be saved. Yo mama here certainly heroically heroed the hell out of your princessy behind that other night a month and a half ago.” She waggled her eyebrows suggestively for added effect.

 

Then there was an argument which he couldn’t remember much about except that who ever gave a baby girl a name like Naruto? It sounded weird even on a boy. On a girl it would just be bad parent’s joke. And _**he**_ had a princessy behind? And didn’t Kushina remember that time when they were both teens and she nearly got dragged off to Cloud if he hadn’t intervened and acted the big damn hero he was? Oh no Madam Kage-mama, if one of them were a princess, it wouldn’t be Minato.

 

He probably should have remembered the expecting for future ninja fathers book’s advice on expecting ninja mother’s hormone levels and propensity for violence (even more than when it was that time of the month) because afterwards things went a little crazy and there might have been some broken dishes and the end of the night saw him sleeping on the couch whilst Kushina dozed off in the bedroom on the broken bed with empty Asahi lager bottles around her like a halo.

 

Things went back to… almost normal… in the next morning. Kushina didn’t do grudges. What she did though was make an announcement when they sat down for breakfast.

 

“I want a baby girl.”

 

To which Minato replied.

 

“Well that’s not something I can do anything about unless you want another go at my princessy behind in 9 months time.” He wanted her to have plenty of goes at him to be honest but he was smart enough to know not to say anything else when she was in this mood.   

 

“No you can’t. I know that.” She said, smiling prettily. “Still, it doesn’t change the fact that I want a baby girl for my first child. Which is to say, I will do something about that.”

 

At that point, Minato simply opened the morning newspaper and resigned himself to 8 months of watching his Uzumaki woman on a warpath.

 

As for Kushina, she set out to do exactly what she promised to. Rule number one to Uzumakis which her only child later on unknowingly followed to the letter.

 

Uzumaki kept their promises.

 

* * *

 

2.

 

“It’s a girl.” Announced Biwako as she held the newborn up.

 

Kushina cried out in intermingled pain and joy. Minato himself could only sigh in relief. Relief which turned out to be short-lived when not five minutes later, a masked man turned up with a dead Biwako at his feet and a crying Naruto at kunai point.

 

Something changed but everything else stayed the same.

 

* * *

 

3.

 

Iruka paused in the middle of his class, eyes fixed on the U row of his attendance call. There it was, the name.

 

He looked back up at his charges. All very young children, the lot of them. Five years old, six. Some came from established ninja clans and families. Some from common civilians who wished to pursue a different path in life. The girl sat near the front row, face all bright and expecting. She had the eager look of someone about to embark on the greatest adventure of her life.

 

… not at all like a demon, or so the rumours said...

 

He licked his dry lips, bit out. “Uzumaki, Naruto”

 

“I’m here-ttebayo!!” The girl crowed, shooting up on her seat, so enthusiastic that she knocked over the notebooks and pencil case on her table. The class of children squealed in laughter at the clumsy child, to which she replied by joining in, blushing sheepishly all the way.  

 

Their laughters were infectious, but even those couldn’t quite reach Iruka’s eyes.

 

Bitter memories rose up from the pit of his mind. He looked into the face of that smiling child and resolved to hate her.

 

* * *

 

4.

 

Three weeks later Iruka found the child after class in a deserted playground. She sat on the swing, her head downcast, soaking wet in the rain of October at 7PM on a Tuesday night. He sighed to himself. He had thought something like this would happen. Eventually, even those innocent children who dared hold out a hand to the one pariah of the village would be snatched back by their parents.

 

He walked by her, stopped.

 

Despite being her primary sensei for the last 3 weeks, Iruka had never seen the child up close, hadn’t wanted to get too close to her. At this distance, she looked scrawny, pitiful even with her choppy, spiky hairdo, scratched face and dirty, faded T-shirt and shorts.

 

He meant to keep walking. He really did. But then the Uzumaki kid sneezed real loud. Iruka sighed to himself, held out his umbrella on top her head.

 

“What are you doing here, Uzumaki?”

 

Even more than the sudden gesture of kindness, the question startled the girl. The sheer shock and that undeniable edge of wariness that came from that question made the teacher in Iruka ache a little. It was the kind that said nobody ever really asked her something like that for any good reason. No child, regardless of what she was, should have that kind of expression on when confronted with such simple inquiry.

 

I should hate this girl, he thought to himself as he said the next sentence. “You will catch a cold if you stay here any longer.” He almost sounded tired. Every time he looked at Uzumaki he was reminded of the last time he saw his parents alive, their backs towards him, running towards the towering demon fox in the distance. But it wasn’t easy to hate… not for such a long time. Hating was exhausting and somewhere along the line, Iruka tired of having to excuse himself.

 

“This is no time for a child to loiter around on schoolground. Where are your guardians?”

 

The girl licked her lips nervously. “I… I don’t get sick easily.”

 

“That’s not an excuse to neglect yourself…” The teacher in Iruka barked, scowling down at her.

 

“... and… and the matron is busy. I don’t want to be a bother.”

 

A minute of awkward silence went by before being broken by a loud, grating growl coming from the girl’s stomach. Ah, it figured…

 

Iruka sighed again.

 

“You… haven’t had dinner yet?”

 

“... no…” Her stomach made another grouchy warble, as if to illustrate the point.

 

Somebody was going to report him for this later on. He just knew it. Young man in the prime of his life like him… and a little girl at this time of the night. It was questionable at best and licentious at worst, seen from the eyes of others. But he couldn’t exactly ignore the girl to her own… hardly sufficient… devices.

 

“I have some ramen back at home. Want some?”

 

If his first question shocked her, this one put her jaw to the ground.

 

“You can change into something not wet there too. I do have a couple of my old clothes that will make do with a belt. And don’t worry about your matron. I will have a word with her. That is… if you want to come with me.” He tentatively offered his hand.

 

Through the rain, the child shyly grinned at him. Around such circumstances they became friends for life.

 

* * *

 

5.

 

Naruto was ten and a half years old when Iruka finally mustered up the courage to go talk to Mitarashi Anko into helping him. His request was answered first by a barrage of snakes to the face because Anko had been napping before he found her. Later on and only when Iruka had the smarts to approach her with three sets of dango on a plate did she stop and give him her time of the day.

 

“You mean that demon brat? The one that goes around screaming he’d be the next Hokage and everybody better believe it?” She said around the dango in her mouth, cocking an eyebrow at him after Iruka laid his case.

 

“Naruto is a she and she is not a demon brat!”

 

“Cute. Don’t get your knickers in a twist loverboy. I couldn’t care less if that one ate humans for breakfast in her past life. Girl didn’t kill that many people any way. Would be damn hypocritical of me to hold a grudge on someone doing my job for free, just on the wrong target. And…” She made a loud slurping sound. “... ya can’t fault me for confusing her with a brat. At that age they don’t got no tits to separate themselves from the next bunch with the dangly bits in the middle. And she looks nothing like her brood mates, those pint sized twits with too much frills and too much pink to survive as any respectable kunoichi.”

 

Anko burped, having made her point.

 

Iruka leaned back in his seat, once again questioning himself if he should be here trying to talk to Mitarashi Anko in the first place. But… Naruto was already well past ten. There were things that Iruka, as a male teacher, could not impart onto Naruto. There was only so much the board of academy governors would take before they were forced to consider all those accusations against Iruka and his slightly too close relationship with his very young female charge. He had hoped having an idol of her own gender to look up to would do Naruto some good. Was sure of it in fact. Incidentally, out of all the successful Konohan kunoichi Iruka knew, Anko seemed the least likely to have a problem with the girl’s secret status as the jinchuriki of the Nine Tail Demon Fox.

 

He swallowed and attempted again.

 

“Just come see her once. That’s all I ask.”   

 

“If ya have more of them dangos where you got them, I’m game.” Said Anko, grinning lazily as she gobbled up the last dumpling.  

 

* * *

6.

 

Naruto nursed a broken hand as she scowled darkly at the strange woman towering above her.    

 

“Who are you?” She bit out, “And what are you doing here?” With here she meant Iruka’s apartment, the one place aside from Ichiraku in this entire village where Naruto felt some moderate sense of safety, her sanctuary. The very same sanctuary that this woman was rudely intruding in. Naruto leveled a look at her favorite academy teacher.

 

“Who is she, Iruka?”

 

“Haha, she sounds jealous, Umino. Didn’t know ya were that naughty type… Like them young, don’t ya?”

 

“I’m not! Naruto this is Mitarashi Anko…”

 

“What’s up ya brat? Lost a fight there?”

 

“I did not! You should have seen them where I left them.”

 

“Yeah? Well ain’t somebody a tough little girl? Tell ya what, in my line of work, tough girls like you tend to leave their blood every where… until they don’t. Get what I’m saying?”

 

“Gerroff my face, you stupid bitch! I don’t have to listen to you!”

 

“Naruto!!”

 

“Get lost, Umino! This is woman to woman. You with your dangly bits in between your legs get the hell out before I rip ‘em off for you!”

 

Once the dust settled, Iruka got to bandaging up a recalcitrant Naruto and surprisingly Anko as well.  

 

“You got some good jaws there, kiddo.” Said Anko good-naturedly as he wrapped the gauze around the bite mark on her shin. “... I might just believe that you actually did lay waste to those other brats. Maybe...”

 

“I did!” Snapped the little blond. “Bit them real good. And broke my hand on their faces. Osahi ran for his mama. He screamed like a girl too.”

 

Anko laughed uproariously while Iruka got the feeling that he had just stumbled upon the rite of bonding of some strange, ferocious jungle animals. “Well yeah, your jaws may be good, but your form is shit. That would be why your hand broke like cookies on something as simple as punching a snot-nosed brat’s face in.  I could slam dunk your face into the dirt when I was half your age. Is that what you academy teachers been teaching the brats these days? No wonder they keep failing and winding up in body bags.”

 

“Leave Iruka-sensei out of this! It’s not his fault the other senseis are out for me!”

 

“Ah hah…” Anko had a dawning look on her face. A jaded ‘I thought so’ expression that spoke more about her than her dirty motor mouth ever did.

 

“And I heal fast!” Naruto brandished her now unbroken hand. “So I don’t need perfect form to wipe the floor with them boys!”

 

“Well that be a dumb thing if I ever hear one. If you had good form, you could have danced circles around them. Poke them in the right place and you wouldn’t have to go break your hand for no reason.”

 

“I don’t do those girly tricks! I ain’t no princess! I’m strong! Believe it! I can take ‘em like a boy!”

 

This was the point where Anko stopped, reared back, leveled a look at Iruka who gulped and politely eyed the exit. Anko as a role model for Naruto? What had he been thinking?!!

 

“Umino, I sure hope that wasn’t you who put that stupid idea into her head.” To which Iruka’s reply were frantic shakes of his head.

 

“Back at you brat, what have you got against proper techniques and knowing what works for you and what don’t?”

 

The girl looked nervous now that her one ally had thrown up the proverbial white flag.

 

“There… there has never been a female Hokage before. There has never been a female Kage period.”

 

“And that is relevant because?”

 

The little blond pursed her lips, lost and frustrated.

 

“So they say you would never make Hokage because you are weak and a girl and you believed them? So you what? Pretend to be a boy? Put on the suit? Acting the tough, brawny guy part so that they think yer strong?”

 

“I don’t!”

 

“Don’t look like it to me. You may be puffing up your feather but you’re doing it the way they want you to. You are playing their game, going by their rules. It’s a shit way to live girl, if you want to go all your life by the way others judge you.”

 

“Shut up! I don’t need to hear that from you! What are you doing here any way?” Naruto snapped again. But her words lacked any real spite behind them.

 

“Why am I here?” Anko made a gesture like an air hook at Iruka’s head with her wrapped up hand. “I’m here cause your overgrown mama hen thought it would be good for me to take a look at you. I hear you been going home all bloody these days. You got beef with someone you can’t settle, girl?”

 

“It’s nothing.” And she was back mumbling under breath. “Nothing that concerns you. I will be Hokage one day. That’s my dream, believe it! That’s all you need to know.”

 

“That’s all I need to know eh? I don’t buy that. What do you think being Hokage means anyway, you little twit?”

 

“That’s easy. Being Hokage means being strong… and respected by everyone!” She bellowed with all the enthusiasm and earnest belief of a ten years old.

 

In response, Anko roared with laughter.

 

“I’ve seen old man Hokage break a block of stone with his bo staff!” Naruto announced, blushing furiously.

 

“Yeah?  Good for him. Guess that works for old man Hokage. It doesn’t work for you though. It will never work for you.”

 

“Why doesn’t it?” Said Naruto, face all scrunched and looking mighty peeved at being dismissed out of hand.

 

“Cause you are a girl and he ain’t.”

 

Before the blonde could shot off something in return, Anko pressed on. “Don’t get me wrong. You being a girl doesn’t mean you are weak. It just means you are strong in a different way that he is… or… you will be, if you work your ass off for it.”

 

“That doesn’t make any sense!”

 

“What doesn’t, ya little chit? The fact that strength doesn’t come in one uniform package?”

 

Anko had a mind to stop there. The girl was stubborn that she could give. Stubborn like her ma the late Uzumaki lady. There was no guarantee if she would even listen to Anko if she hadn’t been listening to her favorite Iruka sensei, and this probably wasn’t her place… or her problem to think about. But something made Anko pressed on. The look on that girl’s face that she knew so very well. That thirst, that constant hunger to be something more, to be acknowledged.

 

Quicker than the blond could react, Anko clutched her right arm, brought it to eye level.

 

“Look at this, hella skinny no?”

 

The brat snatched back her hand, huffing at Anko. “Doesn’t matter how much you train or buff yourself up, even if you takes hormone pills which fuck up your internal organs, it doesn’t change that your muscle density is never going to be as high, your reach will never be as long as the boys. You can pack a hell of a punch, but on a purely physical level, a male version of yourself is guaranteed to do better. And this…”

 

She made a gesture. “Your body will grow in time. It will curve out. It will soften. Your point of balance will go down. At some time in the future your body will decide for you, without your say so, that high intensity combat ain’t your style. You don’t do brawler even if when you were a kid you did a lot of rough housing with your schoolmates. You are just not built that way.”

 

And she was right too because already Anko could see the smallest dip in the girl’s waist and the round, delicate turn of her shoulders. Hidden under all that rough, boyish exterior was a hint of the future. If Naruto Uzumaki was anything like her mama, she would be a devastating high speed, high risk, high pay-off type. A perfect assassin, but not so perfect in drawn-out, open field one-on-one brute force combat.  

 

“Shut up!” The little brat bit out. “I don’t need to hear that from you.”

 

“I’m not done yet, you brat.” Said Anko. “And I ain’t here to do diss talk on an insignificant little thing like you. I just happen to be paying off Umino’s dango is all. Ain’t that right, Umino baby?”

 

Iruka veered off, unwilling to be dragged into the fray. He hated seeing his student being pushed around, but this was a fight he had no place in.

 

“You want to be strong? Then start understanding that strength comes in different packages. You may not be able to punch as hard, but you will be able to endure more pain. You may not be as physically strong but you can go places your boy pals would get kicked out in a second. Some other guys may be able to beat you to a tar in a brute force fight but put on your skirt and your wiles and you could kill him even before he knows it. People have different ideas about strength and what it is and being strong does not guarantee that you will win or that you will get the thing you want in life. I know what they say about strong kunoichi. Well fuck em’ is what I say. Being equal does not mean being the same. You want to be strong? Then start learning about yourself rather than copying it from someone who is not you.”

 

The girl looked at her, all wide eyed and open mouthed. Umino Iruka too, in a way that said he didn’t expect Anko to off and rant about such things.

 

“Well, dang, you mean nobody ever taught you that?”

 

* * *

 

7.

 

One day Naruto broke into Iruka’s apartment in the wee morning, pale faced and close to tears. When he asked what’s wrong, the girl reply was.

 

“Iruka, I think I’m going to die. It just won’t stop bleeding.”

 

Iruka’s eyes went to the bottom of her sleeping pants then… and saw red. Come to think of it, Naruto just had her eleventh birthday didn’t she? And… now that he was on that track, didn’t Nodoka-sensei threw Naruto out of the physical education for kunoichi class the other day because she had been pranking too much?

 

“Shit” Iruka commented eloquently to a sobbing Naruto. It took him a full five minutes of panicking before he settled for finding a blanket, wrapping Naruto up in it, then carting her off in a dead run to Anko’s place.

 

* * *

 

8.

 

When he heard the girlish screams and squeals coming from his home room class, Iruka had a guess what just about happened. Not even a half minute later, a panting Kiba came out to beg for help.

 

“Sensei, Naruto is doing that dirty jutsu again! It’s so gross that Chouji passed out. Sasuke already ran away! You have to do something about it! Please!!”

 

Before Naruto became a full-on genin, Anko’s most important tactical lesson to her was that the skirt was the sword’s natural enemy… and vice versa. Naruto applied what she learned into the very first jutsu she created.

 

The Sexy no Jutsu, under this fair and square philosophy, was born with two versions, the boy’s, and the girl’s.

 

Naruto used the boy version, which was modeled after a teenage Sasuke Uchiha, to devastating effect on the female population of the ninja academy. It was most useful in getting her that extra lunch money from clanborn Yamanaka Ino and some much needed help with homework from brainy Haruno Sakura. Plus, the sight of that Uchiha bastard fleeing in tears never failed to put her in a good mood.  

 

It took a campaign from Iruka and the entire male population of the ninja academy plus the affiliated clans **and** the Hokage (who withdrew his signature after being assaulted by the female version) to put a stop to Naruto parading Sasuke’s naked teenage body around on a daily basis.

 

Then Naruto created the Harem no Jutsu.

 

* * *

 

**End chapter 1**

* * *

 

 


	2. Grow Up Wild and Strong Baby. You'll Do Just Fine!

**Chapter 2:  Grow up wild and strong, baby. You’ll do just fine!**

* * *

 

**9.**

Of course she failed the Bunshin, thought Iruka. He knew more than anyone how hard the little kid tried but when one had the chakra of ten jounin combined and only the budding control of a genin to rein them in. Well…

 

To be fair, the girl was doing a whole lot better after her first meeting with Anko. At the very least, better than she used to be. Her taijutsu was still all over the place and her forms were still bad, but at least she wasn’t banking everything on her own stubbornness anymore. And while that whole Sexy-Suke no Jutsu incident still happened here and there and had done a lot more damage than Iruka would have liked, at least it got Naruto to start studying along the likes of Haruno Sakura, which could only help the girl’s academic performances... or so he hoped.

 

But the Bunshin, the most basic of them all. Iruka dithered, but the policy laid down to the instructors were clear and concise and his relationship with his young ward was already attracting enough attention as it was. Even more than that, he wanted her to learn a lesson. Life was full of disappointment and as a kunoichi, untold danger. If she couldn’t even perform something as basic as a Bunshin, how would she fare in the tumultuous, treacherous place that was the ninja world? No, best left her in the protection of the Academy then. So he assigned the mark as the policy told him to. Subpar, which meant she failed.

 

One by one, he passed out brand new hitai-ate to eager kids and watched the one who wanted it the most quietly sneak out the door. He wanted to go after Naruto and give her that much-deserved lecture and maybe some consolation sessions at Ichiraku but Iruka had many other students who required his attention as well, not just the one.

 

He resolved to go look for her later but Mizuki beat him to it. After it all, Izuka wanted to beat himself up for even giving the bastard that window of a chance.

 

* * *

 

**10.**

Nobody was more surprised than Naruto to see a fuming Anko burst into the scene. She tightened her hold around the forbidden scroll that she had worked so hard to acquire - steal from the Sandaime office, whispered a voice in her mind. Tears on her cheek just about dried up in the wind that blasted across the clearing from Anko’s dynamic entry.

 

The Tokubetsu jounin whipped around to face her, one finger pointing accusingly.

 

“YOU!” Her voice rang across the clearing, startling both Mizuki and a bleeding Iruka into a stupor. “How the FUCK can you still doubt that moronic pussy after ALL this time? You think he fucking cares you got a demon in your belly?”

 

Naruto shook so hard she almost dropped the scroll, but Anko wasn’t done. She turned around and direct her fury at a stupefied Iruka.

 

“And YOU!! I thought you were an A rank pussy but fuck, I thought you could at least keep your eyes on a little kid!”

 

“Woa… wh… why are you here Anko?” Mizuki chose that moment to jump in. There was a wary look in his eyes. His chances didn’t look good now that it wasn’t just an academy dropout and a wounded paper-pushing chunin as his opponents, but also a Tokubetsu Jounin. He looked like he wanted to hightail it out of here but the scroll was still out of his hands, and that was a prize he couldn’t leave without, not if he wanted Sound to shelter him and a future to look forward to, so he lingered, nervously eyeing Anko and surreptitiously scouting out exit routes.

 

In retrospect, he shouldn’t have done that because all it accomplished was turn the kunoichi’s attention on him.

 

“Oh boy…. you….” Anko let out a laugh. It was thin, reedy, and almost half mad. Her eyes blazed. Mizuki gulped audibly, taking a step back. Only then did he realize that perhaps this wasn’t the best of plans.

 

“You really are a special kind of stupid are you?” Anko drawled, almost casually. She shifted her weight to one leg, standing with her hips jutted out, her demeanor mocking. “Even if the kid actually managed to steal it, knowledge of the Schroll of Forbidden Techniques itself is restricted. No way an Academy kid like meathead over there…”

 

Naruto yelped indignantly.

 

“... would even hear wind of it, much less know what it is exactly and where it is kept in the Hokage tower… not unless somebody specifically told her about it to use her as scapegoat. That’s so basic, it’s almost cute ya know? Even if your plan went without a hitch, you would still be a top priority suspect on sheer proximity alone... if we discount cowardly Iruka over here. And…”    

 

Anko made a swirling gesture with one finger, grinning savagely. “I do so hope you know about the exit seal on the scroll?”

 

Mizuki’s face went blank for a fraction of a second. Too fast for a little kid Naruto’s age to notice but it couldn’t pass by Anko.

 

“Ah, you mean you didn’t. What a pity. I would have loved to see you trying to pass the border of this village without first taking the exit seal off. That would have been a fun kind of messy. Did ya know it was the Nidaime who put the exit seal on that scroll? Didn’t want it ever leaving the village grounds. I hear the Second was a right genius with experimental jutsus. Guy also had a nasty sense of humor, some said.”

 

Nevermind the fact that Anko’s understanding of humor or fun things wasn’t shared by at least ninety five percent of the village population.

 

Apparently Anko’s revelation had sufficiently spooked Mizuki because he made to run, but before he could take one step, a fist came crashing into his face and the next thing Naruto saw was Mizuki on the ground and towering above him was a scarred man with an ugly bandana over his bald head.

 

“IBIKI!!” Anko roared. “That bastard’s mine! Get the FUCK off him!” Then she lunged. Ibiki merely sidestepped Anko, giving up Mizuki to her wrath. The snakes came out then, from Anko’s sleeves and from the inside of her coat, hissing and spitting.

 

“Going around fooling little girls into doing dirty work for ya and then abandoning them to the wolves. I betcha were real proud of yourself, weren’t you, ya pedophiliac piece of shit? I woulda mind if you did the dirty deed with any other peabrain little chit out there, but that one…” Tiny little snakes, so thin they couldn’t have been bigger than chopsticks had they been straight, slithered out from Anko’s mouth. Her body quivered, seemingly in ecstasy “... that one is mine. NOBODY touch what’s mine and get away with it.”

 

Ibiki stepped in and blocked the view a second before the screaming started.

 

“Fun night.” He said casually, looking down at a shell-shocked Naruto and a not much better Iruka. “You’ll be fine.” He declared after having given Iruka a thorough check out with his eyes.

 

“Are you…” Iruka stuttered. “... shouldn’t you do something about that?”

 

“Hmm, Anko? She’s just having a little fun. Mizuki’s not going anywhere. We had this place surrounded the moment Anko located the both of you. We have been keeping an eye on him for a while now but he hasn’t given us any solid proof to bring him in… until now that is.” Delight crinkled Ibiki’s eyes as the volume of the scream peaked, then slowly died off. “Besides, Anko knows better than to go all the way with him here, out in the open. She will leave him in one piece for the real questioning back in T&I headquarter. She’s in charge of the Mizuki case. She can do whatever she wants with him as long as she gets the info we need.” An expression of pure sadistic delight spread open in Ibiki’s face. “Today, he truly is the most unfortunate bastard in the entire Fire Nation.”  

 

Neither Iruka nor Naruto had any reply to that except to gape in horror at Ibiki.

 

“Now, about that scroll. I’ll take it from here if you don’t mind.”

 

Naruto surrendered the scroll to the scarred interrogator with no fuss. Ibiki gave it a one-over, then his attention was back on her. “The seal has been broken.”

 

“Yeah, well…. Mizuki bastard told me if I managed to learn one technique in there I could graduate and become a real genin.”

 

“And did you?”

 

“Of course I did!” Iruka whipped around to stare at Naruto. He hadn’t known that! This new development had him feeling nervous. The Shroll of Forbidden Jutsus, as its name stated, held only the records of those most dangerous techniques barred from the normal ninja. The very technique that sealed the Kyuubi, the greatest of all the Juubi, in Naruto was in there.  

 

“Really? Do show.” Ibiki’s face was perfectly blank but Iruka knew better than to expect visible reactions from a member of Konoha Torture and Interrogation Force. Knowledge of the Scroll itself was restricted and access was forbidden. What would happen to the one who admitted to violating that rule?

 

“Naruto!” He said loudly. “If… if this is about the genin test, you don’t…” He swallowed. “You are my best student. You don’t have to do something like that to pass the test. You already pass it. I acknowledge you as a kunoichi of the Leaf.” With shaking hands, he untied his banged-up Hitai-ate and pushed it into her hands.

 

“Mm hmm…” Ibiki mumbled non-committally while Naruto wore a slightly dazed expression on her face.

 

“Thank you,” she said suddenly, turning to face Iruka, “for protecting me all this time.”

 

Then there were a couple handsigns, a yell ‘Kage Bunshin no Jutsu’ and a puff. Ten perfect copies of Naruto now stood in the clearing.

 

“Hmm… Ten?” Ibuka rose an eyebrow, smirking. “Figure that’s the one jutsu you gravitated to, out of everything that is in there.” He made a gesture with his chin at Iruka. “You said this kid failed the genin test because of the Bunshin?”

 

Iruka nodded numbly. What now? What was going to happen now?

 

In response, Ibiki gave a barking laugh. “This kid passes.” He declared. “On my authority as Commanding Officer of Konoha Torture and Interrogation Force. She has our official endorsement if anybody asks for it.”

 

“You have potential, brat…” he turned around and told Naruto. “Never let anyone convince you otherwise.”

 

Then he turned his back on them. “Anko! Wrap it up! You’re starting to spill all over the place. I don’t want to send cleaners out here to pick up your mess. Save the foreplay for the Red Room.” Then he bodily hauled both Anko and a battered Mizuki up and walked away.

 

* * *

 

**11.**

Kakashi felt a grimace working up his face as he looked at the trio before him. Two girls and one boy. Just what the hell did they give him this time? And… that--he checked their profile in the gender option - girl?? Well, that girl apparently was the spawn of the Blood Red Habanero and his beloved Sensei.

 

Kakashi braced himself.

 

“Well, let’s begin with introducing ourselves. Your likes, dislikes, your dreams for the future and all that. Let’s start on the right”

 

The blonde girl-who-looked-more-like-a-boy perked up.

 

“Yosh! My name is Naruto Uzumaki! I like cup ramen and Iruka sensei…” Kakashi zoned out for a second. “And my dream is to surpass the Hokage and have people acknowledge my existence.”

 

Ah… interesting.

 

“Next”

 

“My name is Uchiha Sasuke…” The Uchiha was as he expected. Cold, sharp and brittle. Like new iron after only one flame, as sharp as it was fragile. Kakashi saw him easily breaking with the right amount of pressure at just the right time and place. He resolved to not see another Obito, whether these brats passed tomorrow or not. Then something cracked Uchiha Sasuke’s composure.

 

“I hate… “ A vein throbbed in his temple. “... I hate idiot Naruto and her stupid jutsu the most!” Sasuke’s cheeks were red and he looked almost cute, almost his age. Kakashi blinked. That wasn’t what he expected. Next to Sasuke, Sakura flushed prettily. A guilty look on her face.

 

“Awwwwww, whatsa matter Sexysuke?” Drawled Naruto, a foxy grin on her face. “Did something make you sad? Do you want your Onee-chan to blow away the booboo?”

 

“Shut up! Shut up! You stupid girl and your stupid jutsu!!” Sasuke shrieked in mingled anger and frustration (were his eyes a little wet? Kakashi did a double check) while Naruto laughed.

 

“Hey, come on. You guys!” Sakura jumped in, attempting to stop the two. “Naruto! Stop picking on Sasuke.”

 

… picking on Sasuke? Naruto?

 

Kakashi looked back and forth between the trio, a sliver of doubt creeping up at the back of his mind. There was something about their interaction that threw his expectation.

 

“Alright, kids. Settle down.” He called in to referee when it became clear that Sakura alone wasn’t going to be enough to reel in the other two. “You’re the last one Pinkie.”

 

The pink-haired girl huffed, as if she took offense at the title but was too polite to actually comment on it.

 

“My name is Haruno Sakura. I like…” Her eyes went to Sasuke and she blushed. “Eeeeeeeeee!!!!”

 

….. okayyyyy……

 

Kakashi leaned back to put some distance between him and the obvious rabid fangirl. He knew his chosen career path came with severe health hazards but this was one hazard he would rather not have to encounter.

 

Kakashi was about to write the Haruno girl off as a lost cause when, once again, something out of his expectation happened.

 

“I dislike…” Sakura’s gaze went to a grinning Naruto. “... I dislike Naruto when she’s being stupid!!!” But even as she declared this, Sakura face blushed an intense red and she had a guilty look about her that made it clear she felt anything but dislike for a ‘being-stupid Naruto’.

 

“Awwww!!! You’re so mean, Onee-saaaannnnn” Naruto made a face. Not the kind of face Kakashi expected a kid her age would ever assume, but a face with a--dare he say it?--provocative air about it. Her lips assumed a pouting position. Her cheeks had just the  mildest puff to them and her eyes…  Kakashi did a double take… her eyes had gone glisteningly black, like… Uchiha black.

 

“Is it because I didn’t please you the other day, Onee-san? Please don’t punish Sexysuke. I promise I will make it up to you any way….” Naruto drawled out the ‘any way’ with a breathy, sinuous, sinful lilt, “... you want.”

 

Kakshi gaped in disbelief. Sakura squealed, blood spurting in jetting streams from her nose.     

 

Then Sasuke stood up, yowled like an angry cat and violently threw himself at Naruto.

 

And so began the legendary rivalry of Team 7.

 

* * *

 

**12.**

One day Naruto found Iruka relaxing by himself in the clearing overhead the Hokage stone faces.

 

“Iruka-sensei, I like you.” She declared.

 

“What!!!???” Iruka sputtered, going red in the face and panicking.

 

“When I grow up,” Naruto pressed on as if she hadn’t heard a spluttering Iruka who, at the moment, was torn between fleeing and slapping a hand over her mouth. “Let’s drink sake together and become brother and sister for real.”

 

Oh… ohh…okay…

 

But Naruto wasn’t done yet.

 

“You didn’t have to cover for me in front of that guy with the scars the other day. I’m not scared of him.”

 

Scarred guy? Morino Ibiki? Iruka blinked. “Naruto?”

 

“No, I mean it.” The little girl insisted, looking him in the eye. Iruka realized with a jolt that he had seen eyes this same shade of blue, clear and striking and painfully earnest, under the Hokage hat a long time ago. “I can’t even protect myself now with how weak I am. I couldn’t even land a hit against Mizuki bastard the other day and he couldn’t even touch a hair on Anko’s head. That showed me how weak I was. But I’m not going to be weak any more. I’m going to become strong Iruka-sensei. I’m going to become Hokage and then it’s gonna be my turn to protect you. Believe it!”

 

* * *

 

**13.**

Two days after the Mizuki incidence, Naruto turned up at Anko’s apartment with an armful of dango boxes. Gingerly, she let herself through the door, jumped and passed through the various traps Anko laid as welcome for her house guests.

 

Snakes, snakes, spikes tipped with deadly poison and flying darts doused in paralyzing toxin. Nothing Naruto hadn’t seen from Anko or hadn’t been at the receiving end of.

 

She found the Tokubetsu-jounin sprawled nearly naked in her bed with only an oversized T-shirt and a slinky black panty to cover what little modesty she cared about. The scent of stale alcohol and antiseptic liquid hang about her like a cloud, so thick it stung Naruto’s eyes.  

 

“Wake up, Anko!” Naruto called out, hanging an open box of Mitarashi dango above Anko’s nose. The dango worked like a charm. While Anko ate, Naruto remained silent. Through the short one and a half year they had been acquainted, Naruto had seen Anko like this only two other times before but it had left such a strong impression that she likely would never forget it. Anko was having a torture hangover. It only happened when the kunoichi was through a particular vigorous questioning session that at its end left her high and in the delicious pain fed off from her victims.

 

Ibiki was right. Mizuki really was an unlucky bastard.

 

The oversized T-shirt slipped a centimeter from Anko’s shoulder and in the dim lighting of the room, Naruto saw a mark on the juncture of the Kunoichi’s neck.

 

“So… what do you want?” Said Anko once her proverbial beast had been placated.

 

“The other day you said I was one of yours… didn’t you?” When talking to Anko, coming boldly was the way to go.

 

“Mmm hmm… but don’t get too full of it kid.” Anko sucked a dango ball from the last stick, then threw it like a senbon through her open window. Something crashed noisily outside, followed by the yowl of a panicking cat.

 

In response, Naruto grinned wide. “Thanks…” She now had two people who she belonged to. The ‘you’re cool too’ remained unspoken. Not like Anko needed to hear it to know anyway.  

 

“Say, what’s that on your neck?”

 

“A seal and the mark of a stupid kid.” Said Anko with no fuss given. She pulled her T-shirt with one hand so that the neck part properly covered up the dark mark on her creamy skin. Naruto spied the tiniest flinch in the set of Anko’s shoulders and a minute tightening of her jaws. Small as those signs were, they surprised Naruto because the Tokubetsu jounin she knew wasn’t someone who would flinch away from just about anything, much less the gaze of another on a mark on her body.

 

“It hurts you?” asked Naruto. Not ‘hurt’, but ‘hurts’. Anko eyed the fresh genin-kid. She had always thought whoever said Naruto was dim needed to get their head out of their butthole and take a real good look at the proverbial goods on display. The girl wasn’t book smart the way that frilly Pinkie chit who hang around her was, nor was she slimy and sly like the Nara were. However, she wasn’t stupid. What Naruto had was a startling sense of insight that tended to show up at the most unexpected time… such as this one.

 

“You, brat, are a couple decades too early to be putting your nose in the business of forbidden seals.” Said Anko in a voice that made clear the fact that this was the end of discussion and Naruto better take her curiosity to another direction before Anko put her out in the street with a couple dozen snake bites to show for it.

 

“Hmm…” Replied Naruto as she quietly and determinedly committed the seal to her memory. Naruto only had precious few people in this world who she could call hers and come hell or high water, she would take care of them. If that funny thing was hurting Anko, then Naruto would do something about it, one way or another, whether Anko liked it or not.

 

“Say, did you know that Kibaku’s Dango is having a once-in-a-year promotion…” Naruto smoothly segued to another topic to keep Anko occupied. The back of her mind though was still busy playing with the possibilities of ransacking the central library and old man Hokage’s stockpile for things regarding seals and curses and maybe tampering just a wee bit with them… for fun… and science.

 

This fleeting interaction between the genin and the cursed Tokubetsu jounin on a hangover morning was the beginning of a lifelong route that would see Naruto becoming not the best but only the craziest seal master in the entire history of Konohagakure.

 

* * *

 

**End Chapter 2**

* * *

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With this chapter, this story officially passes the Bechdel test. Anko and Naruto’s convo in the first chapter could have qualified but there was a good bit of Iruka in there and their initial interaction did revolve around Iruka a bit, unlike in this chapter two. 
> 
> Next chapter, Naruto attempts to activate her mother’s chakra chain ability. Brace yourself for BDSM jokes and chain kink (coughGaaracough) in the future.


	3. A Mother's Living Will

**Chapter 3:** **A Mother's Living Will**

* * *

14.

"So…" said Anko, eyeing the vanilla envelope in front of her with wariness. "... what is that and what do you want this time?"

In response, Naruto flipped it open and out came a handful of gaudy tickets with embossed golden borders. "Ibaku's Dango passes to the all you can eat all-day all-night buffet week. A hundred and twenty two types of Dango. Twenty six flavours for each types. Countless sauces and condiments. Entertainment, tea ceremonies and free massage service in house. And also, rumours have it…" Her voice dropped conspiratorially. "... that Ibaku Kobosuke himself will make the ultra-rare legendary triple layer, gold flecked super Kototoi Dango… and hide it as the prize of an in-buffet competition. They said, that only the ultimate lover of Dango would be able to pick it out amongst the thousands of ordinary dango in the house. They only hold the buffet once every ten years and they don't sell out tickets. Entrance by invitation only. I have here…" She brandished the tickets. "... seven passess. Which means that you can pack your bag and go stay in Ibaku's compound for seven days and seven nights and just eat and do whatever the hell you want. They even prepare sleeping rooms and break rooms where you can take your time-out from eating all the dango."

Naruto reared back when Anko pounced.

"Ah ah, this will not be free."

"Damn it! Where the hell did you get those anyway?! I couldn't even get them via my connections!" Anko growled, body coiling with the agitation of a jungle predator being denied a particularly juicy prey.

"I ain't sharing my secrets!" Crowed the girl triumphantly. "But if you absolutely need to know, Ibaku's daughter is around my age and I just happen to know which boy she really really likes." She waggled her eyebrows for extra effect.

"Figures…"

"Any who, that's not really important. What's important is.." Now she was in Anko's space, holding the golden tickets in a fan shape in front of her face, her wide blue eyes boring into Anko's. "... what will you do to get these tickets? And… before you entertain thoughts of stealing these from me, do know that these are Kage Bunshin. The real ones I have left in old man Hokage's hands."

Anko sputtered. "Fine! What you do you want brat?"

Now suddenly the kid was all serious. "My chakra control sucks," she said.

"No shit, Sherlock."

"Well, help me do something about it."

"Help you do what? Last I checked, you already know the principle to better your chakra control. Practice, practice, and practice. There's nothing else to it. It's like training a muscle. You either put in the work and reap the rewards, or you don't. No shortcut."

"I did put in the practice." Naruto grumbled. "It doesn't work. I still suck. Still can't do the Bunshin."

Ahh… now Anko leaned back and studied the girl. That hang-up was still there? Then again, Iruka the pussy did come out pretty banged up from that one time and, if she was going all the way, the brat's abysmal control could be seen as the immediate cause for that incident.

"If you are putting in the practice, then you are already doing everything I would have done in your situation. Fact is, kid, you just have an abnormally large reservoir of chakra. More to control, makes it harder for fine tuning. What others can do with one you have to put out by ten, or twenty…"

Anko paused as she eyed the look on the girl's face. Seemed like her words would get nowhere if she didn't change direction quickly

"Shucks…" She muttered, then raked a hand through her hair. She knew very well the look on that face, stubborn and bone headed and not willing to give up. If Anko didn't fess up something reasonable to Naruto's ears, the little brat would be on her tail like hot glue for the next couple weeks. And Naruto, despite the fact that Anko could kick her butt six ways from here to Suna, could be a real pain when she wanted to be. "You are something of a weirdo ya know? Kunoichi usually don't have so much chakra. It's the opposite that's the problem. The normal kunoichi typically has about a third to half a shinobi's reservoir and about twice the amount of fine control which is why there are more kunoichi genjutsu masters and healers than heavy combat ninjutsu types."

Come to think of it, Anko could vaguely remember the older Uzumaki mama having similar… conditions. She had been young then, a fresh genin under… Anko stopped the wave of revulsion and hatred that ran through her like electricity… Orochimaru's care, but young as she was she still recognized the big barda of ninjutsus casually thrown around by the older woman.

Uzumaki Kushina used Taju Kage Bunshin no Jutsu for house works. If that weren't the mark of an excessively large chakra reservoir, then Anko didn't know what was.

"Yours is something of a hereditary thing I think…" She scratched her chin absentmindedly, her thoughts whirling particular memories of the past. "... Your ma was the same but she also had good control or so I heard, so she must have found something that worked for her"

"…"

Too late did she realize the tense silence that descended. When she turned her attention back on the genin in front of her, the face she saw was one of pure shock.

"My.. ma? My… mother?' Naruto repeated dazedly. Her fingers slacked. The golden tickets fell from her grips and lay on the floor, momentarily forgotten. "You know my mother?"

Oh.. oh fuck…

And, just like that, the light hearted mood in their conversation was gone, replaced by one of thorny wariness and the shock of unplanned revelation.

Licking her suddenly dry lips, Anko ventured. "... nobody ever told you? Fuck, don't answer that. I was stupid…" The decree forbidding talks of the girl's special status was a short and relatively simple one. Don't talk of her demonic tenant. It said nothing of the status of her parents. And the late Uzumaki dame's status as well as her marriage to the Yondaime, while not widely known to everyone in the village, was not purposefully kept a secret either. But Anko wouldn't be surprised if certain people in the know had decided to omit the knowledge to keep the girl from her… potentially dangerous heritage before she was ready.

"You know her. You know her!" Naruto's voice rose and a terrible hunger peaked in her face. She pelted Anko with questions. "What was she like? Who was she? What is her name? How did you know her? Tell me!"

In response, Anko squared her shoulders.

"I can't answer any of that." She said, face blank.

"What? Why?" She heard anger in Naruto's voice and a hint of betrayal in her face. Chah! To be such naive children.

"We live in a ninja village. You are twelve and a soldier. You chose this life. You walked into it with your eyes open. You ain't stupid kid despite what people think. You tell me why I can't answer any of that."

Anko watched the girl going still from realization, going quiet, like a statue cast from iron. The rictus of rage and resentment frozen in place in her young face before slowly, so very slowly, they melted away. What followed was a deathly calm that Anko only knew too well in those shinobi and kunoichi many decades her seniors. Ninja as a whole weren't an overly expressive lot, but that did not mean that they did not feel, and in fact, many of them felt strongly. What they were taught from the academy and childhood days more than often had them internalize their emotions though, regardless of their magnitude. This expression, this dead quiet that belied terrible inner turmoil. Ah, but Anko knew it so well.

"So, what are you going to do?"

For a moment she thought she wasn't going to get an answer but moments before she was about to give up, Naruto said, quietly, but clearly and calmly.

"I am going to meet some people and I am going to ask questions. Unlike you, they are under no one's orders to stay silent so I won't take no for an answer."

* * *

15.

Sarutobi Hiruzen faced the girl at the end of his work day. The clock read 4:55 PM and he was five minutes away from going home to enjoy the companionship of his children and grandchild and a nice cozy homemade dinner.

The look on Naruto's face as she walked in immediately dispelled any future plans for the night he might have entertained. Hiruzen felt at once old and failing, like his age had finally managed to catch up to him now that he let his guard down.

To his surprise, she asked about her mother and not her father, but it didn't make things that much better.

"I can't tell you that, Naruto-chan." He said. "You are still so young. It is for your own protection."

Only on such young faces could sadness, hurt, and betrayal be displayed so openly and without the self-conscious reservation of adulthood.

With a curt order, Hiruzen had the room empty of every one else aside from him and the girl. Not even his ANBU lingered. For this conversation, privacy was required. He talked to her at length, gently steering her away from the secrets her parents were embroiled in before their death. But between the two of them, the child was the more stubborn one and she leveraged guilt against him in the way only innocent children could.

"That's a load of bull old man, and you know it!" Naruto declared. "Tell me in what world is it wrong for a child to want to know about her mother or father. I have…I thought my parents might have been like the other kid's. Some unaffiliated ninja without clans who died too young for anyone to remember them…"

The orphanage was full of stories like that. Ninjas had short life expectancy, especially those who came from civilian background.

"... even… even after I found out about that damned fox, I still thought… maybe I lost my parents that night and the Fourth thought me a conveniently orphaned kid…"

Her words pierced Hiruzen.

"But it looks like that's not the case at all. Anko… knew my mother. She was someone… someone important enough for you to hide her from me. She wasn't no ordinary kunoichi was she? Who was she? What is her name? What was she like?.. and why… why did she let this happen to me? Why did she let the Fourth seal Kyuubi into me? What was her reason? Tell me. I deserve to know."

"Naruto... "

"Shut up! I don't want to hear your excuse, old man. I am a soldier of this village. For all we know, tomorrow I may die. It's sick that you can trust me to die like a good ninja tomorrow but will not trust me with the name of my own mother." She was shouting now… and crying. Her hands fisted into tight balls and snot ran from her nose. For all her bravado, Naruto was a twelve years old child still. Hiruzen found some relief in that.

"Ah, my child." He said, finally, reaching out to sooth her. "You may have your father's hair and eyes, but the rest of you are all Kushina's." Then he yielded, just a little. "Perhaps I was wrong in trying to keep you from the heritage that is yours by birthright."

For the next few hours, he chose his words very carefully and told her a much edited but truthful tale of another girl child like her years ago.

* * *

16.

Naruto went to the river as the sun fell down in a glorious cascade of light and dust above the forest. Standing in the warm glow of the descending twilight, she studied her image in the water. Never before had she looked so closely at herself. Her face, her eyes, her hair, the puff of childhood still in her round, pink-dusted cheeks. She touched them with shaking fingers, mapping out the contours.

Never before had she thought of how they connected her with other people, with a mother and a father she never knew… but was the living legacy of. A connection made of blood and flesh. Something no one could rob her of.

Holding up her hands, she peered deeper inside. The chakra roiled. This too… this… this was something she shared with someone else. With a mother whose name she now held in her head.

Kushina. Uzumaki Kushina. Her mother. The sound of it was like raw sugar, like dark honey. Sweet, and intoxicating, and dangerous as it left her high and flying. Naruto thought about it sparingly, like a child holding off from candies, only putting small bits in and keeping them in her mouth, savoring them one at a time because she couldn't yet process the overwhelming happiness they offered, worried that she wouldn't be able to take so much of it in this early.

Kushina. Mother.

"... mother" She said out loud, then fell quiet as the word reverberated in the air, ricocheting, growing faint in the distance. "... I have a mother." Again, dazedly. She let the chakra build until a faint blue glow emitted. Then she wondered to herself if Kushina also did this… here… years ago.

She took hold of the blue light and imagined that she was holding onto hands only she could see. Maybe, maybe if she held on tighter, looked deeper, went further, Naruto would grow a little closer to her.

* * *

17.

"Tell me what you see"

"... a mirror"

"Yes. Now look into it. You are looking at the single thing your mother left behind. Her living legacy"

"...!"

"I don't have to tell you that the life of a ninja is fleeting. Were you perhaps thinking of getting something of hers? If you are, I will have to tell you that your mother left nothing behind. There are no books nor keepsakes from mother to daughter. Her death was not something we thought would happen so soon and Kushina herself did not care for materialistic possessions. The house where your parents lived was burned down in the aftermath of the Kyuubi. But you… except for the hair and eyes, you are the spitting image of your mother. You are like her in so many things. Your face, your personality, your Hokage Dream… and… like you, Kushina was also the bearer of the Kyuubi."

.

.

.

"How did my parents fall in love? How did they meet for that matter?"

"Ah… well.. you see, your mother was very tightlipped on that matter. She was embarrassed I think. For your father, it was love at first sight. He was nine."

.

.

.

"Who was my father?"

"... I can't tell you now… But I promise I will when you have learned to protect yourself."

"... so he wasn't no ordinary shinobi was he?"

"He was a hero"

.

.

.

"Was… Anko said…. Anko said that her chakra was like mine…"

"Oh, child, you don't even know the full extent of it."

"Was it because she was… was also the Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi?"

"Partly yes. But that chakra, that larger than normal reservoir was all hers… by birthright."

"... what do you mean?"

"Now that is a long story, but I suspect this was the original reason you found out about this, no? Might as well… Now, Naruto, tell me what you know of chakra."

* * *

18.

Naruto learned the secret of the Kage Bunshin from an unexpected source. Kakashi, who volunteered the information by himself and with no strings attached. At least… not ones that Naruto could see.

When asked, he simply said. "You have one hell of an obsessively overprotective adopted brother you know that? I think that guy may have developed a complex over you. Soooo dirty..." Then he groaned and stretched and his body made disgusting pops from odd places. It looked painful. "Why didn't you tell me that before I stupidly decided to one-thousand-year-of-pain you? Just so you know, cause you didn't share that information now your beloved and fabulous sensei is under a loooot of duress and that's your fault Naruto-kun. It's like you one-million-year-of-pain me and you didn't even have the decency to own it! How are you even going to make it up to me huh?" Then he held up his dirty orange book suggestively while making obvious eye gestures between her and the book…

Well, Kakashi was a creep and a weirdo like that sometimes so Naruto put the incident out of her mind (but not before sharing that incident to a strangely poker-faced Iruka who, after a period of silence, merely said "I see Naruto-chan. Not to worry. I will take care of it. Now you stay here and I'll just be out to meet with Anko and Ibiki for a minute. You stay put you hear.")

From then on, she had used the Kage Bunshin for a couple things, like reading up mission briefs and carrying out D rank missions she couldn't be bother with. Only after she found out about Kushina did the jutsu come into its full uses.

Kakashi had been short and to-the-point with his explanation of the Kage Bunshin's hidden function. None of his usual rhetoric or mind-twisting way. The Kage Bunshin was as great a learning tool as it could get, especially for one with so much chakra as Naruto. It didn't help with Taijutsu and physical conditioning of course, but anything other than that was fair game. And… apparently, chakra training was also part of all that was fair game.

The first time, Naruto made 50 Kage Bunshin and, standing amidst a clearing, reached deep inside her.

The chakra. Mother. Kushina. She thought as she delved deeper and deeper and deeper and she thought her vision might have turned red for a split second.

_I want to hold your hands. I want to be closer to you. This is what we share and no one and nothing will stand in my way of reaching out to you. Not even death._

She had a killer headache in the aftermath but nobody ever said Naruto shied away from putting in the hard work or ever hesitated to tough it out during training. She made 60 Kage Bunshin for the second time.

* * *

19.

"What does that question even mean old man? I've been studying with Sakura you know and she's real smart. Of course I know what chakra is! I ain't no fresh academy kid!"

"Well, do humour me then."

"Fine! Chakra is… the most vital energy for a ninja. It is a two part force that combines energy of the body and energy of the spirit. Without it, we can't perform ninjutsu, or even live at all. Ninja convert chakra into fuel for our ninjutsu via performing seals. Satisfied?"

"Hm… it does seem like you are learning something from your teammate"

"I'm always learning old man!"

"... But don't you think it's strange that the explanation for our most vital energy to be so simple?"

"What do you mean?"

"Naruto-chan, in this world, there are ninja capable of extraordinary things with their chakra. Your normal ninja can breath fire or water from their mouth, cut with the wind and move boulders. They can also walk on water and cross greater distance at faster speed than horses. Then, there are those truly special ninja that are capable of feats other ninja cannot. They can move lands, mountains, even entire seas. They can summon great spiritual beast to their bidding, imprison demons into innocuous objects, teleport themselves from one continent to the other, link their mind with other people, lengthen their lifespan and… even resurrect the dead."

"!"

"Don't you think that's really extraordinary. Chakra sure is a useful thing no? But our explanation for it, the very one that serves as the basis of our ninja education is so simple that it's lacking is a testament to the fact that we actually… do not know much about chakra at all."

"!?"

"Have you ever thought about why your chakra do certain things with just a few gesture of your hands? Who design the hand seals and why do they do what they do? Why are there so many different types of chakra? What separates a demon's chakra and that of a human? And if chakra was formed from the spirit and the body, why then are there babes born with strange chakra types and potentials that their parents do not have? Genetics? Perhaps, but we believe there are more at work. And then there are the Bijuu, spiritual beasts composed entirely of chakra, whose fleshly bodies are formed from condensed chakra itself. Naruto-chan, the fact is that our understanding of the most vital force of this world, chakra, is incredibly limited."

He paused here, smiling at the naked wonder on the child's face.

"Your mother, Kushina Uzumaki was our hope for a better understanding of chakra."

"...!?"

"Don't look so surprised. You yourself noticed that your chakra potential was so much greater than anyone else right? You could not have thought your reservoir was merely created from your body…." He made a gesture at the child's frankly unimpressive statue. ".. and your spirit."

"I have the fox."

"You do. But not all of your chakra came from him. You see, you and your mother came from a very old, and once very powerful clan. The Uzumaki of Uzushiogakure."

"I have relatives!?"

"Not any more I'm afraid. The Uzumaki died out long before, even before Kushina's time. There are a handful of survivors last I heard but most hide their Uzumaki heritage for fear of persecution from their enemies."

"Oh…"

"But that is neither here nor there. Back to our story, The Uzumaki was… a clan feared by many. They are famous for their seal techniques, their vitality and their ability to heal rapidly from injuries that would have been fatal to any others."

"So that was not the fox."

"No, that was all you Naruto-chan, and don't let other people tell you that it's him who heals you. Demons do not give out things so easily. He most likely won't step in unless you are near death and will die without his intervention."

"That's not very nice."

"But what the powerful and knowledgeable ninja leaders of their time fear most is the Uzumaki's strange chakra. It is an especially potent chakra. Rumours is that the clan's attributes, their Fuinjutsu and their vitality are directly tied to their unique chakra. And also, the bearers of the Nine Tailed Beast has always been women of Uzumaki lineage."

"!"

"Yes, before your mother, there was another and her name is Mito Uzumaki, a distant ancestor of yours Naruto. Demonic chakra is toxic to human. Jinchuriki typically do not live long lives. Most die horrible death from being corroded by the chakra of the beasts jailed within them. The Kyuubi chakra is the most powerful and dangerous of all the tailed beasts. No other linage has ever been able to contain him within their bodies. It was only the Uzumaki, and even then, only selected members with especially strong will and vitality. Your mother was the only one of her generation."

* * *

20.

Iruka found her on the fifth day as she laid panting in a destroyed training field. He sighed as he walked around her, inspecting.

"Well, at least you aren't damaging yourself… too much."

"Hey, Sensei…" Naruto managed to croak through the haze of chakra exhaustion.

"You do know that you can't force Kekkei Genkai right?" He said, making a motion at the chakra scorched earth and tree around them. "Plenty of ninja parents never manage to pass their abilities to their children. Genetics is a tricky thing. And it doesn't matter if you have all the chakra in the world, if you don't have it, you can't force it. But, I suppose I can't dissuade you from this even if I try my hardest, can I?"

"You… you know?" Shakily, she sat up.

"Well, with all that chakra you have been putting out, I wouldn't be surprised if people in Suna know about you by now." Iruka tsked condescendingly at her. In response, she laughed. "But if you need to know, Sandaime-sama updated me on your situation. His word was…" he made an air quote. "... Naruto-chan is just like her mother. When she's put her mind to something, it's already too late to try to stop."

"What can I say? I'm just fabulous like that!'

"Don't get too full of yourself brat." He gave her a swat on the head. "At least try not to hurt yourself and... this…" From Iruka's pocket came a trinket on a piece of brown leather string. From far off, it looked like an ordinary necklace, but this close she could see scripts engraved into the stone.

"If you want to develop a kekkei genkai, at least know how to keep it a secret. No self-respecting ninja will ever divulge their abilities so easily. But you! You have been broadcasting your chakra to everyone with a lick of it in this entire village! Wear this when you are training. Sandaime-sama prepared it for you."

"Thanks! You're the best Iruka-sensei"

"Go thank Sandaime-sama!"

Then he sighed, and the sound was long and put-upon. He sat down beside her and put one hand on her shoulders.

"We have been getting complaints from chakra sensors. They say you blind them."

"I… well… I'll try to keep it down."

"No, I don't mean that." He shook his head. "What I mean is… you have been putting more chakra in five days than a jounin can produce in his entire life and still, nothing has changed…"

"That's not true. My control is better now! I can walk on water! Like, for two full minutes! I can even show you."

Iruka swatted her on the head. "Don't interrupt when I'm talking!" Then sadness flashed across his face for a split second. "Naruto, what if you just don't have it. What happen when you pour all your potential chakra into this and your mother chains just won't materialize?"

Ah… Naruto leaned back and studied her favorite sensei's face. That was what Iruka was worried about? But that was just like him. She grinned wide as the happiness bubbled in her chest, then overflowed.

"It's fine Iruka. Even if I don't have my mother chains, I don't mind. I actually just want to be close to her. I feel like…"

She held out her hands, reached out. The chakra came immediately, like a pet eager to be unleashed, and with it, an indescribable feeling. "... like I'm closer to her like this. We are so similar you know. She was just like me too, before she met dad. I don't actually want or need the chains, I just… I just want to be closer to her. I know it's silly and she's long dead but Anko and even the old man said that our chakra were very similar. I just... want to reach out to her. My mother. I just want to have more of her... and this is the only way I know how."

* * *

**End Chapter 3**

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Listen to Yukata Yamada's violin soundtrack for Tokyo Ghoul when you read this chapter and subsequent chapters pertaining to Naruto's connection to Kushina. It's very atmospheric and to me fits the tone of their relationship and Naruto's constant reaching out to her mother.
> 
> 2\. Serious chapter is serious
> 
> 3\. Much character building for Naruto in this chapter. I have always liked the bond between Naruto and Kushina and thought it deserved a little more screen time in the manga. They were so similar in many ways, and Naruto's changed gender in this story gives it a new dimension too, that of a mother-daughter's relationship.
> 
> 4\. Next chapter, more on Kushina's power, potential and the village past intention on rearing her abilities. Naruto unlocks the chakra chains for the first time whilst in Wave.
> 
> 5\. No Sexysuke this chapter but I'm contemplating a Sexytachi in future chapters. Naruto needs money for her seal supplies and ninja tools you know? And she's always overcharged by the merchants. What's a girl to do when the Play Kunoichi mag comes with some lucrative offer?


	4. Sacred Ropes 1

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto

**Reason:** for Gaanaru fanday, July 28th. Also, for the lulz.

**Beta:** Michelle T.

Summary: Kushina wants a baby girl because reasons, and what Kushina wants Kushina gets. For a scrawny, orphan brat with dreams too big, pink or blue really don't matter, especially when little Naruto likes orange better anyway. Gaara of the Sand may be a fearsome shinobi at fifteen, but nobody ever said he was a pro at weathering life, puberty, and the politics of physical union between states.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Gaanaru. Naruto with Kushina's chakra chain and barrier kekkei genkai.

Each of the numbered parts is not necessarily in chronological order. Just saying.

**Chapter 4: Sacred Ropes 1**

* * *

**21.**

When it finally happened, it was in an explosion of light and chakra and almost unbearable heat. The 'chains' sprang from Naruto's torso, tearing through the red shroud of demonic chakra. Then in her head, through the haze of anger and fear and desperation, came a thought.

'Finally...'

They were bigger than she thought, longer, with more heft to them and they threaded through from the core of her body, pulling enormous amount of chakra as they went. They moved to her will, stretching out like overgrown vines.

It hurt physically as the chains grew and grew, wrapping themselves around her and Sasuke, then around the mirrors from which Haku materialized and squeezed… The mirrors broke in a shower of shattered ice shards, some of which would have impaled the wounded Konoha genins on the spot if it weren't for the translucent gold chains around and above them. So tightly wound together they were that the chains formed a literal shield of pure glowing chakra.

With great difficulty, she stood up and glared at a stunned Haku, who had been forced to vacate his mirrors with haste lest he be crushed to death along with them.

"You! I might have pitied you before this but! Sasuke…!"... She stopped for a heartbeat, the chain closest to Sasuke's heart informing her that yes it was still beating. Her asshole of a friend wasn't dead yet despite all appearances. Still… Borrowing a line from Anko, she snarled. "Nobody whips this pansy's ass but me! You're mine, ya bitch!" With that, the chains around her sprang forward in an explosion of light and movement.

In the aftermath, Zabuza lay dead amongst the corpses of Gato's goons. The cheers of a freshly liberated country made the music of his funeral. They buried him in the forest with his sword and left a couple days after with a tied up Haku. The boy glared at them the entire way back. He was livid… at the people who he perceived had as good as killed his master; especially Naruto, whose chains held him tight as he screamed and struggled in vain to get to Zabuza's side.

Despite the death glares, Naruto thought it was better this way. This anger sustained him, that she could see. Without it, he would have been empty and aimless, a doll with the strings cut off, lost and alone in the world. For that reason alone, Naruto would gladly take the fury aimed at her back.

* * *

**22.**

Having a bloodline limit, that changed things. Before that, though Naruto herself was absolutely convinced of the fact that she would activate her mother's chains, most Konohans had simply taken the little girl's (very loud) exclamation and (borderline lunatic) dedication in making it just so the same way they took Naruto's six years and running declaration of going for the Hokage's hat.

As something to be waved off… if only for the sake of their continued sanity.

Now that the chains had popped into being around and weaving about the arms and fingers of Konoha's most infamous prankster of the generation, some particular individuals had become very concerned indeed.

As luck would have it, the first of these individuals was Kakashi Hatake.

In the world of ninja, information was weighted in blood. Information on blood limits and special abilities even more so. Every single ninja understood that to disclose the entity of what they could do was tantamount to committing suicide. Those that didn't, those that liked to brag or needlessly flaunt, never survived in their secret world for long. As a result, details on clan powers were all jealously guarded even among allies. These abilities, regardless of power level and potential, were private affairs to the individuals and national secrets to the villages. They weren't things to be shared lightly (if at all), much less announced and flaunted in the usual fashion of Konoha's most unpredictable genin.

The chains, termed Shimenawa in the village's book of registered bloodlines (Konoha Intelligence Department still denied the existence of such documents but Kakashi had gotten real chummy with one of its member over Junmai-Shu Sake and juicy steaks), were no small name ability either. Because of the extremely limited documentation of its applications and combat prowess, a direct consequence of its similarly diminutive number of recorded bearers, the Shimenawa had no ranking in the book. However, that Iwa had prioritized the kidnapping of a Shimenawa bloodline bearer _over a bearer of the Byakugan_ , going so far as to risk the delicate peace right after the Second Shinobi World War, was more than enough proof of its potential and strategic importance to Kakashi.

If the awakening of the Shimenawa had happened within village's ground, Kakashi had no doubt the entire thing would have been hushed up and erased from public knowledge by Intelligence Division in a matter of hours. All sensitive information regarding the blood limit would have been pulled from public, leaving only a vague facsimile to cover up the censure. The new bearer, in this case Naruto, would have been taken into covert protective custody and any statements regarding the very existence of a bearer flatly denied by Konoha.

But that couldn't happen here, not with the bright and bold awakening of Naruto's Shimenawa on foreign soil and to an audience of nearly an entire villages worth of people. Intelligence Division was good but Kakashi doubted even they could erase the memory of glowing chains of doom materializing into existence from the mind of several hundred hired thugs and Wave citizens. Yet at the same time, letting information of the newly resurrected bloodline flowed freely was also unacceptable.

It was clear to Kakashi, a scant 15 minutes after they buried Zabuza, that mitigating solutions had to be carried out for the safety of the village and Kakashi's most audacious student.

That night, as the villagers made merry and drunk themselves into a stupor in the village center, Kakashi had a talk with Tazuna. By the expression on his face, the old bridge builder was surprised by the no-nonsense tone of Kakashi's voice, which was absent even when he was in a fight to the death against Zabuza. Kakashi himself didn't see why. He knew he wasn't the best sensei any genin could ask for, but he sure as hell didn't dick around with the safety of his teammates.

To Sakura and Sasuke, he had a separate word. Sasuke, being of an old clan, already knew the etiquette of clan abilities and so only emitted a long-suffering groan as Kakashi threw him a glib remark about knowing what to NOT do concerning Naruto's chains.

"She's going to be insufferable…Sage preserves me," muttered the Uchiha heir under his breath. An impressive occurrence considering Sasuke's raging emo preteen boy status normally didn't allow him to speak more than two sentences per day (and those were good days).

"Ahh… young love," commented Kakashi sagely, beating a jaunty retreat from the shaded woody patch behind Tazuna's house before Sasuke collected enough wits to shake himself out of horrified stupefaction and either screamed or gave chase. It was just like Naruto to be able to push Sasuke's buttons when she wasn't even around.

Sakura, on the other hand, took a bit more explaining, but his other female student was a smart girl. More than that, Sakura was still in that phase when she thought she could get her way around adults by acting the sweet-natured, obedient little ingenue. Kakashi was totally not buying into that act! He had been friends and unsuspecting witnesses to the lace-dressed, abominable, rotten deeds of too many a naughty Kunoichi to fall for such old tricks. Besides, Kakashi had once spied a clandestine rendezvous between Sakura and Naruto in her Sexysuke skin. He could, in utter confidence, proclaim that Sakura was no sweet-natured, little ingenue because… because...

The amount of baby doll shoes, gaudy plastic hair clips and most terrifying of all… frilly lace dresses and skimpy schoolgirl uniforms involved in that whole affair still haunted Kakashi to this day.

"Of course I'll be good and quite about it, Kakashi-sensei. You know you can trust me," beamed Sakura in her good little girl voice at him. But Sakura was still a rank amateur when it came to disguising her -filthy, rotten, perverted to the bones- intentions and so couldn't hide the suddenly and delightedly inquisitive gleam in her eyes.

"Say Kakashi sensei. You know Naruto is really creative when she wants to be right? And those chains… " she enunciated the word 'chains' carefully, like a hungry wolf licking the juicy rump of a poor, unsuspecting doe, "...of her have a real neat look about them. Do you think…"

Kakashi ran off in abject horror before Sakura could finish that line of questioning.

The next to last person on Kakashi's list to talk to was the Orange Menace (or so the boys of the academy called her if Iruka were to be believed) herself.

"My cute little Naruto-chan," Kakashi sang as Naruto eyed him suspiciously, one of her hands going for her flash bang grenade pouch. "Now now my cute as a button minion," Kakashi intervened before her fingers could touch them "..There's no need for you to get all fluffed up like that on my account. Your beloved sensei merely wishes to congratulate you on activating your mother's chains."

"Ahh? In that case, thanks… I guess?"

"Ah… ah, not too soon, Naruto-chan. I haven't said you can go yet."

And the wary look was back. Really Kakashi needed to have a serious talk with Anko. Did she know how much fun she had been taking from him?

"You do know that you can't use your chains right?"

"... Uh… why? Cause last time I checked I can do just that" Then she went and back that up by calling on her chains. They came, swiftly, glowing. They were thicker than Kushina's but they were fuzzy, their movements sluggish. He could see it would be a while yet until Naruto learned the rope of her new toy.

In answer, Kakashi grinned at Naruto, all crinkled eye and full teeth through the cloth of his mask. "Ah, are you saying that you will disobey a direct order from your beloved sensei?" It went to show that the last Uzumaki of Konoha was a lot smarter than people gave him credit for because immediately she picked up on the thin thread of pressure building in Kakashi's chakra and stiffened, at once realizing he was in a serious mood despite the smiles and faux jolliness. The chains retreated in the blink of an eye, chastised. She looked at him with her big blue eyes, some wariness mixed with curiosity.

"I hear you've been putting a lot of work into activating your chains. Perseverance is good, as well as dedication. But my cute minion, what is the first lesson I taught you as a ninja?"

"You… uh… to… to look underneath the underneath?"

"Bingo!" He clapped his hands. "And if others were to look at you and you had no underneath the underneath? Say, if you play poker with a bunch of strangers and you have a very strong hand, maybe stronger than the others, but you also have to play all your cards face up while the others get to hide theirs. Who do you think will win? Your exposed hand? Or the unrevealed hands of your opponents?"

Naruto went quiet and he saw the light of comprehension in her face. Bending down low, Kakashi put a hand on the little girl's bony shoulder. He looked her in the eyes and said slowly and clearly.

"My cute student, do you have any idea how lovely a target you make to those who would only see you as chattel?"

Naruto shook her head, bewildered. She had never before seen this face of her sensei. Not even when he was dancing in a battle of life and death against Zabuza the Demon did he have such an expression on his face.

"You have a wonderful new toy you know, Naruto-chan? It's shiny and pretty and smells so sweet all the hungry wolves can't help but run for it. But they don't care for her girl holding the toy. They just want the toy is all. Do you know the things wolves can do to a little girl like you? I know you think I'm great and can protect all of you little ducklings but your magnificent sensei is just one man you know?"

Naruto nodded, slowly. Did she always look so small and… young? Without her bluster and her pranks, Naruto Uzumaki was a scrawny, underfed girl child, frail like a bamboo twig that could be snapped in half with the slightest pressure. Kakashi, big grown warrior ninja at the prime of his life, was a giant next to her.

"I will fight to the death to protect my teammates that is true, but have a little pity on your lovely sensei. If I can't protect you… if something were to happen to you…just what am I going to do?"

He didn't mean to let the pressure come out through his words, but it did anyway and now it hang in the silence and in the heavy stare Naruto leveled at him until Kakashi broke it by guffawing as loudly and as comically as he could.

"Bwuahahahahahaha, what's with that face, Naruto-chan? Serious looks don't suit you you know? You should go back to your usual up-to-no-good expression."

"I won't call out the chains," said Naruto in reply. "Not until we get back to Konoha. So don't you worry Kakashi-sensei. That's a promise. Believe it."

"Ah… well… that's really good to know." Then he ruffled the hair on her head and thought of his own sensei and his beautiful redheaded wife.

* * *

**23.**

Kakashi's nin dog arrived at Konoha a good 3 days before he did, so when the man himself check into the Hokage's office, Lord Hokage was already expecting him.

"You're actually on time. I'm surprised," said Sarutobi by way of greeting. Next to him, Iruka Umino pinched his cheek… hard.

"... This… this isn't a dream? The tardy shinobi Kakashi Hatake is actually… on time?" He pinched his cheek again, as if he didn't quite believe he got it right the first time around. Then he eyed the content of his coffee mug dubiously, as if wondering if someone had spiked his morning Macchiato with the content of the Interrogation Unit 'fun' chemical box.

"Hahaha, very funny, Umino-san. I see you miss me," said Kakashi. "Lord Hokage, if I may…"

"Of course," The Hokage inclined his head, then turned at Iruka. "Umino, I would like a minute in private."

With no need for further prompting, Iruka bowed out and left them alone.

"I read your report, Kakashi-kun. You did good work," said Sarutobi once the door to his office closed shut.

"Are we going to have problems? There were a lot of people there when it came out."

"Possibly, but the chance is not high. The Shimenawa is not well-known and to simple civilians, ninja techniques are difficult to tell apart. You were right though, in talking to the bridge builder and leader of Wave."

"I suppose a negotiator from our village is already en route to Wave?"

"He arrived an hour ago. They are a small village, and they violated a contract. It is well within our demands. As for the thugs…" Sarutobi stopped there to tidy up the papers on his desk. He didn't need to say more for Kakashi to understand.

… most likely already hunted down and thoroughly vetted by ID. If any of them still lived, they would go the rest of their life with holes in their memories…

"What happens now?" asked Kakashi, still standing at attention. His kids were back at the home, getting their dearly needed rest after the mission. He wouldn't meet them for a couple more days, but…

Sarutobi leaned back in his seat and regarded the papers in his hand with a frown.

"The council is in a stir. The clans haven't been informed but I expect they will find out soon, most likely before this afternoon is through."

Kakashi nodded. Typically other clans had no business concerning the resurrection of a bloodline not their own, but the manner with which the chakra chains had come back from the dead… there was no hiding it. At least not to those who knew where to look.

"I read your report. If seems Naruto's chains are particularly potent. It was around this same time that her mother got her own chains I think. I don't remember Kushina's chains being able to shatter ice jutsu or defend against shrapnels on first summon though."

That was to be expected. The chains had composed entirely of condensed chakra from a girl who had been the vessel to the most powerful chakra beast since birth. Kushina might have awakened her chains around the same time but she hadn't had the Kyuubi within her for nearly that long.

"Her control of the chains is not good," Sarutobi remarked.

"I cannot teach her what I myself do not know," Kakashi admitted plainly. Coming here today, his first goal was to make sure his teammates are safe. His second was to make sure they would remain that way for the foreseeable future. He might have only been a little kid when Kushina was alive, but he well knew the Shimenawa was a powerful combat oriented ability. It was like handing one of the Seven Swords of Kiri to a little kid. She needed to be taught how to handle her big knife before she hurt herself beyond repair. And Kakashi, much to his displeasure, simply didn't know how to go about it. He shifted. The diminutive movement would have been imperceptible had the Hokage not been carefully studying him. As it was, Kakashi's uneasiness from being unable to help his student didn't escape Sarutobi's attention.

"It's good to see you taking so well to the children Kakashi-kun. Mother-henning is a good look on you," said Sarutobi, sounding both pleased and amused.

"Hokage-sama, you wound me! I do not mother hen. I lack the feathers," replied Kakashi, easily going along with the Hokage's lighthearted ribbing. That got him a chuckle and a hand gesture that demanded he stood at ease.

"There have been calls to remove Naruto from your tutelage. Offers to take her in have been submitted."

Ah… well, Kakashi supposed that was to be expected. There was already one high-profile clan kid in his team. A team with a high profile, near extinct clan kid and the jinchuuriki as well as the sole bearer of a bloodline previously thought dead must be really pushing it for some councilors. As the saying went 'best not put all your eggs in one basket lest you lose them all in one fell swoop'

"I assure you that will not happen, Kakashi-kun. I would not trust Naruto-chan to any other jounin but you," Sarutobi stated, calmly and nonchalantly as if he was stating the weather. Kakashi could only imagine who had offered to take over Kakashi as Naruto's teacher and adult guardian.

"It does not change the fact that I cannot teach her to control the chakra chains."

"There are other things Naruto-chan needs to learn, Kakashi. Other things you are fully capable of imparting onto her, such as teamwork, strategy, control."

Kakashi mulled over this statement for a half a minute until it came to him. "I take it a specialist will be provided to teach Naruto what I cannot? A bloodline specialist?"

"Evidently, my boy."

Now Kakashi's interest was piqued. The post of who got to watch over the single bearer of the ancient Uzushiogakure bloodline must be a political battlefield right now, or if not, it would soon be. Bloodline specialists weren't especially rare in Konoha, what with the majority of their fighting force being comprised of various clan members, but as far as he knew, few of them had the political clout to come in and take over without a half of the council and the clan heads voicing their rejection. Whoever it was that Sandaime-sama chose…

… "He or she must be very good," he said that out loud.

"The best of our village, my boy," claimed the Hokage, with the look of a man about to watch a delightful, private performance about to unfold. "You should watch yourself around her Kakashi-kun. She once taught Naruto's mother herself and she has no stomach for naughty little children."

* * *

**End Chapter 4**

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1\. Shimenawa = Enclosing Ropes, a type of sacred ropes used for ritual purification or as wards against evil forces in Japanese Shinto religion. There's a reason I chose this name for Kushina's canonically un-named ability.

2\. As you can see in this chapter, Naruto is a really really bad influence on Sakura. She is a lot.. cough… naughtier than she is in canon (or maybe just as naughty but does not feel as inclined to hide her naughtiness as much)

3\. Kakashi! I like Kakashi! His portrayal in this chapter followed the build of comedic adult figure who is secretly a dangerous BAMF as he was portrayed in canon. I like Kakashi as a character. He's a lot more nuanced than he first appears. He's got that interlay of self-depreciating humor, repressed guilt and trauma, emotional vulnerability and intense need to protect the people he cares about that makes him a compelling character to those who pay attention to the small details. Despite being one among the most dangerous shinobi of the Naruto world, he could still make the people around him think he's a goofhead. I hope my portrayal of him in this chapter got that mix right.


	5. An Old Woman Talks to a Bird

**Chapter 5: An Old Woman Talks to a Bird**

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24.

When Kakashi finally got to read the new name attached to Naruto on Team 7 record, his first thought was:

_She's alive?!_

His second thought arrived milliseconds later.

_I see. If Sandaime-sama appoints her as Naruto's specialist, then absolutely no one will be able to object to his choice. Before… and after._

Far away in Konoha, in two ostentatious private residences and one (deliberately) ominously decorated and unnecessarily spiky underground facility belonging to a shady organization named after a subterranean part of a tree, three old persons opened the envelopes bearing the updated data of Team 7 composition and saw the new name attached to one Naruto Uzumaki. Their first thought, not through sheer coincidence, was the same as Kakashi's.

_She's alive?!_

Meanwhile, far away in Konoha but not in the three locations above, two other old persons sneezed for absolutely no reason. One was Konoha's very own Sandaime Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen. The other was a very old, very cranky lady with an abnormally long list of loans all recorded under the name of the first old person who sneezed.

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25.

The rolled up documents came at her from behind, so quick and so out of the left field that Naruto couldn't dodge them.

"You! You… stupid, ox-headed girl!" cried the wrinkled old bint that came bearing down at her from the door of old man Hokage's office. In her hand was that offending roll of documents and with it, she whacked at Naruto's head, one, two, three times in quick succession, filling the room with a series of fwap-fwap-fwap.

"Whoa… whoa… lay the hell off you crazy old…" A stern look from old man Hokage had Naruto doing a prompt revision of her word choice. "... woman."

Scooting away from the old bint, she cried out. "What did I do to you? And who the hell are you?!"

"What did I do to you?" Snarled the old bint. "More like what did you and your stupidity do to yourself, you daft child!" Then she turned around to face old man Sandaime, her cheeks still red, and bowed.

"Sandaime-sama, my report on the physical condition of Naruto Uzumaki, as you requested," said the old woman, dropping the now crumpled documents on his desk. Then she stepped to a side, glaring sternly at the flabbergasted blonde girl.

"Naruto, I'd like you to meet Makino-san here," said old man Hokage as he unrolled the crinkly sheets of paper. "Makino-san is our chief Geneticist and foremost bloodline specialist. She was the one who cared for and watched over the physical development of your mother's bloodline abilities."

"Ex-chief," The medic, Makino, cut in with the ease of one who had done this many times before. "He meant I was your mother's handler, child." She was an old woman with a lean, wiry frame under her voluminous white robes, perhaps even older than old man Hokage himself. She had an eagle-featured face, with the skin on her cheeks folded into leathery pleats. Her grizzled hands were threaded through with green spider veins and dotted with brown liver spots. Her hair were white and fine as spider silk, held together in a severe bun. The scent of old perfume and even older people hung about her like an invisible shawl. She had one good eye. Her other eye had whited over with age. Both of those eyes were pinned on Naruto's face, her gaze sharp as a razor despite her age… or perhaps because of it. Makino wore the look of someone who might have seen the ghost of a relative. A faint hint of mingled nostalgia and disbelief. But it was gone in an instant. "I was the one who smacked Kushina into knowing when to stop abusing her own blood abilities because you Uzumaki all have cats for brains and don't know when to quit. And I will be doing the same to you, starting today."

"Wait! What?" Naruto looked incredulously from Makino to old man Hokage. "What? Is this true, old man?"

"It is, Naruto-chan. You are, regrettably, the last of your clan in Konoha. There are no surviving adults of the same bloodline to guide you through your developing years. A specialist is required to to monitor your growth and… intervene, should things veer in unwanted directions."

Naruto stared at him, sputtering. "That… that.. that is total bull! Why would I need this…" She held out both hands, gesturing in frustration at Makino. "... old crone here telling me what I can and cannot do? Before I even activated the chains, didn't those old gaffers you had for advisors also tell you I'd never be able to do it in a million years? Well, guess what! A million years happened and I have them frigging chains now! So in their faces! They ain't Uzumaki, yeah, so what the hell do they know?"

She pointed at Makino, who, incidentally, was also NOT an Uzumaki. "I didn't need them gaffers telling me what I could do back then and I sure as hell don't need this one right here telling me what I can do now!"

Against Naruto's expectations, 'the old crone' was not at all fazed by her antics for she neither sputtered with embarrassment nor fumed with indignation for having been pelted in the face with verbal rocks by a little girl. Instead, she crossed her hands and smiled wrily at Naruto.

"Feisty little one, isn't she, Hizuren-kun? Has a mouth on her, just like her mother."

A funny look passed old man Sandaime's face then. A little grimace and a knowing glint to the eyes that seemed to say _'There you went and did it Naruto-chan. I wash my hands off the both of you. Have fun pummelling each other into submission!'_

And indeed Naruto's instincts were right on the money because in the next minute, old man Sandaime glanced at Makino, made a little motion with his hands as if he was dusting off something (his responsibilities perhaps, the rotten traitor of an old pervert!), and declared.

"She's all yours, Makino-san."

In answer, a horrifying grin broke out on the old medic's wizened face and before Naruto could reach for the homemade smoke bombs on her belt (For Daily Emergency Use, read the words scrawled on top the white sticky-note label), Makino had snapped out with one bony hand and grasped hold of the genin's ear.

And up Naruto went, shrieking and flailing like a snot-nosed academy kid.

"Ow ow ow! What the hell?! Cut that out!"

Out of trained reflex, her hand swung up to make a chop at Makino' arm. Her chakra sprang out, forming chains. Naruto fully expected to have this overbearing old crone on her butt in seconds, but the next thing to happen was completely out of her imagination.

Before her chains could so much as touch Makino, they had sputtered out of existence, as if they were the flickering candle flames before a strong wind. Then Makino did a funny little twist with her hand, as if sweeping with a broom, and just like that, a zap went through Naruto, bringing the genin to her knees. The jolt wasn't that painful, but it froze her entire body, making it at once stiff and all jittery.

"Think you are so—what is that world you youngsters use nowadays—awesome, do you? Think you're the hot stuff with your fancy blood limit don't you? Think this poor, old woman can't handle a dynamite little gal like you, don't you?" said Makino to Naruto, whose mouth was open wide with shock and incomprehension. "My dear…" The old medic drawled out the words with relish. "... I have dealt with rambunctious little children the likes of you all of my life. Yours is hardly the most dangerous bloodline I've had to whack into shape."

"Ow ow… Lemme go, you crone! You smelly piece of cabbage sack!" Naruto squirmed in her hold. For all that Makino only had two fingers around the tip of Naruto's ear, it felt as if she had been clamped down by steel vice and wrapped over with barbed wires. Was this some kind of messed up jutsu specifically made for old grannies?

Makino paused, eyeing the squirming Naruto with relish, then explained to the flabbergasted genin with deliberate slowness. "My own ability negates every known bloodline in the history of the ninja world… and then some. As long as I have hold of you, you can't escape my grasp."

"Well yeah! Well, good for you!" replied Naruto, before she once again tried to reach for her smokebomb, only to find her fingers reaching for thin air. Turning up, she saw them hanging from Makino's other arm, forlornly out of Naruto's reach. "You… how? When?" Sputtered the genin.

"Why are you so surprised, my dear? This is but elementary," Makino drawled, smiling wickedly at the horrified little girl (who promptly turned to look at an uproariously laughing Hokage in shock and betrayal).

"Now then, let us go some other quieter place and leave the lord Hokage to his business, shall we darling?" And with that final taunting lilt, the old medic then proceeded to drag Naruto kicking and screaming out the door.

* * *

26.

Makino Suki herself received the missive from her Hokage a good five days before this fateful meeting. She had been in bed at the time, enjoying a good book probably as old as she was when the carrier pigeon let itself in through the ceiling hatch of her forest home and made a sort of irritated clucking sound at her. Another courier beast who had never visited the house of Makino Suki probably wouldn't have made such blatantly impolite sound to one as old and highly stationed as her, but by the distinctive powder blue streak on this particular pigeon's left wing—a patterns of little heart shaped dots sitting so thickly together they appeared a unified wash of blue from afar—this one had been here before, and knew Makino for her quirks when dealing with particular leaders of the village.

It took the bird a good five minutes of clucking and general feather fluffing for Makino to even grace it with her attention. When she finally gathered enough effort to reach across her bed, untie the string from its legs and roll the note open, the message inside was short and succinct.

'Naruto Uzumaki has activated her mother's Shimenawa.

Signed: Sarutobi Hiruzen'

"Well that's fine and jolly and has got nothing to do with me whatsoever," said Makino to no one in particular as she crumpled the paper with both hands, threw it to the bin and declared to the expecting looking bird. "And off you go. I am not penning a reply to that little brat. Shoo!"

Then she got up, took a good long look at the disaster of epic proportion that was her morning bedhead, smiled smugly to herself ("Still got it, old girl! Rrrr!"), and then went to the bathroom for a good, refreshing morning wash.

The bird came back half an hour later when Makino was in the process of pouring herself some tea to go with the fresh toasted bread and piping hot omelet she had just made—with a brand new note at its feet, this one on the same tone as the first.

'Did I tell you Naruto Uzumaki also inherited the Kyuubi from her mother? Well, I just told you now.

Signed: Sarutobi Hiruzen'

The second note also went to the bin.

"And you can tell him that he ought to try harder next time, bird. There are plenty adequately certified bloodline specialists in Konoha the last time I checked, ones who are equally interested in chakra beast-ology, mind! He has no need to pull a poor, old retiree from the sanctuary of her retirement and _**this**_ poor, old retiree certainly is under no obligation to answer to his cheeky requests. In the history and hierarchy of Konohagakure's old crones, I, Makino Suki of the Suki clan, outrank him! You go and tell him that, bird," said Makino as she violently shove food into her mouth while making pointed gesture at the unfortunate carrier pigeon.

The bird squawked (An impressive feat considering most pigeons only found enough temper in them to coo temperamentally at whatever was causing them distress. Then again, heaven knows what those folks at the rookery had been pairing the vanilla pigeons with.) peevishly at her, as if saying 'Well, I never! And you two should go find yourself some other poor, unsuspecting fowl to do this didly-daddly busy work for you!' before taking off in a flurry of feather and talons.

"And tell him he still owes me a peach planter for that one he smashed back in Nidaime-sama's fourth year!" yelled Makino after the much beleaguered messenger bird, prompting a long-suffering screech from it. "And the apple planter before that! And my entire field of summer melons right after his Jounin promotion! And my rose climber that one time he and that little chit Biwako were fooling around in _**my**_ herb garden and were stupid enough to be caught by me with their pants down! And I still have pictures, mind! You go tell him that bird! That this Makino Suki may be getting on her age but her book keeping is going nowhere soon. If that little snot-nosed brat Hiruzen Sarutobi thinks he can browbeat me into tangling with another Uzumaki, he better remember that! You go tell him that, bird!"

The third missive came an hour later, all nicely wrapped up and slotted inside an iron cylinder with the seal of the Hokage office on its lid. The seal still had the slight haze of chakra imprinting on it… which spoke of the sensitivity of the information that might be contained within.

It called out to her like a beacon.

Makino hesitated for a second before sitting up properly. Regarding the bird and its missive, she said. "Well now, that brat has gone and pulled out the big kunai on me hasn't he? Well let's see what he has to say for himself"

She sat herself upright in her seat, hemming and hawing at the now clearly fed-up bird, but did not make any move towards it. Instead, she took her sweet time, leaving the bird to fret on the messenger bird's pole. Taking out a brush from a nearby table, she straightened out her hair before tying it up into a neat bundle. The clock on top her table read 10:25 AM and Makino was having her second tea break of that morning. The paper calendar next to it was flipped to Friday the 26th, January… with the Friday scratched out and replaced with Sunday in red permanent marker. In fact, every other day except for Sunday in Makino's calendar had been scratched out and replaced with Sunday from the first to the last page. Her life for the last several years had been one long string of Sundays after another and woe befell the fool who thought himself capable of breaking Makino Suki's eternal Sundays!

Flipping the page of the morning's newspaper, Makino leisurely set to solving the day's crossword puzzle, completely ignoring one incredulous looking bird as well as the front page news that boldly stated 'New Alliance with Wave. Konoha takes the next step to ensuring Hi no Kuni's stability and economy.'

When the bird emitted yet another disbelieving coo at her, Makono simply waved a hand at a plate filled with roasted sunflower seeds on the table without even looking in its direction.

"Well, what are you waiting for? An invitation? I'll have you know I don't speak recalcitrant messenger bird. Help yourself dear. I don't work until noon on Sunday, not unless Madara Uchiha comes back from the grave and tells me he will pay me back all the money he owes me. And that's a lot. He thinks he only owes me a penny though. Uchihas are rather bad at mathematics, do you know? All that hair on their head must be slowly asphyxiating their brains to death."

When it became apparent that Makino was not going to budge an inch on her decision, the poor messenger pigeon made a frazzled noise, as if it had resigned itself to a terrible fate, before helping itself to the roasted sunflower seeds. At least it was still paid for the down time and this was some good sunflower seed.

And so it went inside the little forest house, the old madame engrossed in her crossword game and the carrier bird engrossed with stuffing its face, until the clock struck twelve noon. Makino put the newspaper down, turned to look at the bird with one hand outstretched.

"Well, I've made him wait long enough. Now let's see what that brat has to say for himself, hmm? Hand me the scroll, bird."

The bird rolled its eyes but stuck out its leg without any further fussing or pointed feather fluffing. Without another word, Makino took the tube from it. A swipe of her chakra over the seal and it clicked open and out came… thick stacks of rolled up medical records. Unfurling one, Makino skimmed it top to bottom, froze, doubled back and read it again.

_This… This is…_

She turned to the other pages, read them in a frenzy.

_Is that child suicidal?_ she thought and then reminded herself. They didn't teach the clan kids the same way they did in her time anymore. Then she stopped, berated herself. No, no, wrong one. The child had no other clan member. The Uzumaki were all dead, had been dead for decades now. She was all alone, with none to guide her but… Makino froze again, at once reminded of another Uzumaki girl child decades ago, the redhead trembling at her doorstep with a look of defiance on top of well-concealed sorrow that didn't at all fit her age. That was right after Mito-sama departed from this world. But she knew this, had expected this. What was Sarutobi's game? He knew full well mere pity would not rouse Makino from the nest of her retirement. At over eighty years old, Makino had contributed her fair share to the village. None could say that she didn't do her duty in full as a kunoichi of Konoha. She had washed her hands off the village's affairs decades ago. If even the adult Kushina couldn't bring her from seclusion, then her child daughter whose name Makino had heard but whose face she had never beheld in person would not sway the old kunoichi either.

But habits died hard, and habits formed from decades of work lasted even longer. Instead of dumping the entire stack into the nearest trashcan, Makino continued reading and re-reading the various medical records, carefully going over the details as she used to some thirty, forty years ago. The information in here, while surprising in scope and potency, was not truly unexpected. The daughter was simply exhibiting talents that the mother once possessed at a slightly more pronounced speed, that was all. Then finally, she turned the last page of the stack over. This one wasn't a medical record, but rather a status report of…

Ah… and here it was, the crux of Hiruzen Sarutobi's hook to get her out of her hermitage. No matter how hard Makino tried to forget, the sins of her past had a way of catching up to her when she was least expecting it. Makino had lived a very long life by the standards of ninja. That meant that she had left an entire legacy of mistakes and errors in her wake. And just as luck would have it, she was survived by none of her many children and grandchildren, so if she were to die now… if she were to die now without at least settling this one old debt, then there would be no successor to repair her mistake for her. The old woman went quiet and still as the implications of the page content sank in. The current council members, Koharu and Homura, with Danzo on the side. Ah, how times flew. Once those three were but snot-nosed brats who would flee at the sight of a furious Makino Suki. Now they were the ones who called the shots in the village of Konohagakure. Why, she could still remember when those little boys and girl had been wee little academy students. The days where the three of them used to run butt naked in the autumn rain seemed like they were but yesterday. Back then, whenever they misbehaved, she would give them a thorough spanking until their backsides were red raw. She wondered if she could do the same now? Just stroll right into their offices, swing them onto her knees, and proceed to spank the naughty out of them.

Leaning back on her seat, Makino Suki let out a peal of giggles. Then the giggles grew until she was laughing full-throated. Her laughter boomed in the room, ricocheting off walls and floors and ceilings, rolling like thunders in her head and shaking her old bones. The carrier pigeon gave her a dubious look, the look one would give to a person one suspected of some degree of insanity, and backed off a step.

"Oh my dear bird, my dear dear darling fowl of feathery magnificence," she shifted in her seat, still laughing now, laughing so hard she was crying a little. She felt old and brittle. She felt a joy so sharp it threatened to split the cage of her chest. She felt an aged, bone-deep sorrow welling up from the pit of her heart. She felt her wounds reopen, old memories exhumed. She felt many things, none of which were strength. "Don't be afraid of me. I'm just an old, crotchety woman at the end of her life. I have but one message for you to bring back to your master."

Her laughter quelled in an instant as Makino turned to face the bird in full, her gaze suddenly heavy with promises. A cold smile stretched the leathery skin of her face.

"You tell Hiruzen-chan… and Homura-chan, and Koharu-chan, and Danzo-chan… that their nee-sama is coming for a visit, and they better prepare their backsides, because they have been very, very naughty."

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**End Chapter 5**

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**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter will cover Naruto's training under Makino (it's brutal. Naruto is in for it. Makino is no normal old woman. There's a very good reason why she was once capable of instilling the fear of gods in Koharu, Homura and Danzo), the political standoff behind Naruto's situation and why the Hokage chose Makino as Naruto's mentor. We will also explore a little bit of the Shimenawa kekkei genkai. After that, we will go straight for Chuunin exam time and Gaara!

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. This story was written as a gift for a friend on Gaanaru Fanday. It is also written for the lulz and because I want to a/ screw with people b/ find out what happens when player number 2 now has a slot instead of tab and a physical and political can/may happen between Suna and Konoha. Just, you know… curious….


End file.
